RE #184: Kendal Harazny - Co-Founder/Principal of Wexford Developments - Developing amazing urban projects in Canada & US

Kendal Harazny is a Principal and Co-founder of Wexford Developments, a real estate development, investment, and management company. Wexford has completed over $500 million of development, currently has $500 million in assets under management, and has an upcoming development pipeline exceeding $400 million, including over 900 units breaking ground in 2022. Focused on Western Canada and the Southwestern United States, Wexford is primarily involved in urban mixed-use residential projects but has also developed substantial land, retail and industrial assets.

In this episode, Kendal and Chris discuss an array of topics such as the differences in Canada vs. the United States and what it takes to develop a generational asset. They also chat about how Wexford identifies and selects projects to work on and why design matters and how to communicate to neighboring stakeholders and much more! 

Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris

Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/

Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Watch this Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DN61kAEFq-4

(02:08) - Kendal’s Background and Career

(04:10) - What are the top things that create bad deals in development?

(06:10) - More on Kendal’s Background

(10:44) - What are the biggest differences between Canada and the United States?

(13:02) - Getting Project Approval in Canada

(15:25) - How do you handle emotional opinions from the community when doing development?

(17:53) - Incorporating Feedback From the Community & Rezoning

(19:48) - How long is the process from submitting to the city for approval?

(21:45) - Is everything you do for rent or do you have for sale opportunities?

(22:13) - How do you capitalize deals and think about debt?

(24:00) - Why don’t you bring US debt into Canada?

(25:07) - Cultural Differences in Lending

(26:54) - How is recourse structured?

(28:28) - How do you think about parking for your projects?

(31:35) - Thoughts on Building EV Stalls

(33:49) - Is a lot of your equity coming from Canada or is it global?

(34:50) - The Toronto & Vancouver Real Estate Market

(36:52) - What experiences are you having as it relates to building and the supply issues we’re seeing?

(40:27) - What do you look for in markets before entering?

(43:16) - How do you know you’re going into the best location?

(45:07) - How do you think about hiring architects?

(48:49) - The Importance of the Cohesion Between Architects, GC’s and Engineers

(52:02) - What matters to you when picking General Contractors?

(54:39) - What is ‘crystalizing the promote?’

(1:00:08) - Kendal’s Hunt for an Acquisition Manager

The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts